Let me first wish you a Happy New Year and I hope you had a great time over the festive period. For me it was something new this year. It was the first time that I've ever been away on holiday over Christmas and New Year and also my first time on a cruise ship. It was both a holiday and a delayed honeymoon for my wife and I after our wedding in the early part of last year. We had an unbelievable time on board the "Celebrity Solstice" and in the process visited some truly astounding places around Australia and New Zealand.

This trip was a great time to relax and refresh ready for whatever this year brings, but at the same time you cannot possibly visit a place like New Zealand and leave your camera at home. As I sit here now in my office and load the memory cards onto my laptop I'm already very excited to see some of the photographs that I made and I will of course, share them with you soon.

I went on the trip with a couple of bodies of work in mind as we saw a wide variety of places. As soon as I can I will start forming the photographs into these mini projects and begin to share them with you. As with all good holidays though we soon enough return to the reality of heading back to work. For me it begins tomorrow so it will take me a few weeks to get through the photographs and share them with you so please be patient in the meantime.

For now I'll leave you with a single sneak preview of one of the most majestic places on the planet. The World Heritage listed 'Milford Sound' in New Zealand. I cannot possibly put into words what I was thinking as we entered this part of New Zealand's Fjord-land National Park, although playing the theme music from the movie 'Jurassic Park' would be a very appropriate backing track! The weather was icy cold from the Antarctic winds that meet the South West part of New Zealand's South Island. At the early hours of the morning this weather draped the sheer rock faces in spectacular mist and fog.